Japanese lifestyle ~25~ Seijin shiki

  Today is the national holiday. It is a coming-of-age celebration.
Seijin means "becoming adult" Shiki means "a ceremony".
A lot of young people who became 20 years old get together at city hall
and celebrate this day.

  I wrote that Japanese people don't have many chances to were kimono nowadays.
This is special day.So most of woman wear kimono at the ceremony.

  By the way, it is also true that there are a lot of rude young people.
They speak loudly during the ceremony. ^^;
Sometimes, the situation is broadcasted on TV.
And newscaster blame for their attitude.

  Today' news paper reports on the coming-of-age celebration at Fukushima.
One of the city that had the tragedy at 3.11,2011, called Rikuzentakata city
had the young victims of earthquake. The news paper says, there were 277
young people who would be 20 years old today. But, unfortunately, 11 young
people died of the disaster. I feel sorry about that. I sometimes hear that
a person who is much younger than me dies because of some reasons.
 
  When I was 20 years old, I could not join this ceremony because
I was in Canada for studying.

Thanks for reading!

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Japanese habit/custom ~17~ Tsumekiri

This is my nail clippers.
How do you care your nail? Do you have this kind of stuff in your country?
I am not sure how the other country people care their nail.
Is the shape same? Or do you use any different tool to care your nail?

By the way, it is very popular to decorate the nails between woman.
Woman ,especially young woman decorate the nails like this. It is called  "Nail art"
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Nail_art.jpg
A lot of Japanese man hope to get married with woman who like to cook
the meal. When Japanese man look for the woman to get married, he may check
if woman  decorate the nail like this. Because, if you do nail art, you would not
be able to wash rice. Of course I can't say generally.^^;

Japanese saying ~1~ あ(a)

From this posting, I will introduce the Japanese sayings from time to time.
(I don't write about it everyday)
I use the karuta that I showed you at the last posting.
Today's saying is....
あたまかくして　しり　かくさず。

Ｉｆ I translate it directly, it means
you hide the head but you don't notice that you couldn't hide your hip.
Atama(あたま)＝head
kakusu(かくす) means "hide". かくして　かくさず is variation of kakusu.
It is hard to explain about grammar for native Japanese...
Siri(しり)= hip

  I explain the meaning of this saying.

  Even if you think you could hide something, people would know about it.

  Yes, you can't hide all of the bad things. God knows everything...

Japanese traditional culture ~17~ karuta

I introduce a Japanese plaything, called "karuta".
Do you know "hiragana"?
Hiragana is one of the Japanese characters. There are 50 kinds of hiragana.
Some of you would know あいうえお...
Traditionally, we have a plaything that uses the hiragana.
The name is "karuta". Here is the photo.

I explain how to play it.
There are 50 kinds of cards that have picture and hiragana.
And there are 50 kinds of cards that is written a sentence on it.
Someone read aloud the sentence.
And the players find the card someone read as quickly as possible.
Players have to listen carefully what was the first hiragana of the sentence.
You repeat this until players take the all cards.
The winner is the person who got a lot of cards.

Ｔｈｅ　ｓｅｎｔｅｎｃｅ　ｄｅｐｅｎｄｓ　on the kind of karuta.
A Japanese saying is written on this karuta.
いしのうえにもさんねん means, "you have to stand something at least
three years to achieve it".
Cold stone would get warmer if you sit down on it for three years.
In this sentence, getting warmer the stone means you "achieve something"

Thanks for reading!

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Japanese lifestyle ~24~ Juken

  Now it is the season of juken in Japan.
What's juken? It is the examination of high school or university.
In Tokyo, there are many junior high schools that require juken to enter.
I personally experienced juken of high school and university.
  On 19th, and 20th January, many high school students have the "center shiken".
It is the biggest examination for entering university. Most of the national university
ask students to have this center shiken. Many private university also asks students
to have this shiken. Shiken means "examination".
So, a lot of students challenge this center shiken. Nowadays, a lot of
students go to university in Japan. Last year, the number who apply for this
examination was 555,537. But the number is decreasing because of
declining number of children.
 And after finishing this examination, students challenge the test of
each university. The result of the examination depends on the total score of
both examination.
 Private university holds each own date of examination. So students can try
as long as the date is different and you have money.
  About national university, they have first-term examination and  the latter examination.
The date is same among national university. So student can't more than two examination
at the first-term examination.
  Students who have center shiken in this year would have stressful days now.
I used to spend such days...^ ^;
  Some people say, you should not go to skiing or use the word "suberu".
Suberu means "ski". Because in Japanese, when you fail the exam, you say
"suberu". People take care not to use the inauspicious word.

Thanks for reading!

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Japanese traditional culture ~16~ Otoshidama

  I introduce the tradition of otoshidama.　おとしだま（お年玉）
There are many traditions to introduce you in this Osyogatsu season.
  At the beginning of the year, Japanese people gether at the house with
relatives. And they have a lunch or diner together. It is good chance
to meet your relatives.
  Children look forward to this event because they can get some otoshidama.
Otoshidama is money that is given from older people to children or younger
people. They put money into a bag and give children. The amount of money
depends on children's age. If he or she is older, the amount would be more
higher. Normally, he sum of the otoshidama is from 1000 yen to 3000 yen (?)
Usually, the money is given by paper money, not coin.

 Thanks for reading!

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Japanese traditional culture ~15~ Hatsu yume

  What did you see a  dream at the beginning of the year?
In Japan, we have a tradition about the dream you see at the beginning of the
year. People foresee the luck of the year from the dream.
  There is a word.
"Ichi(1) Fuji
  Ni(2) Taka
  San(3) Nasubi"
For Japanese, this phrase sounds rhythmical.
The first is Mt. Fuji. It is the best one.
The second is Taka. Taka is a hawk.
The third is an eggplant.
 It is interesting that the eggplant comes thirdly. It seems to be wired.
I looked up the origin of this phrase. There may be various views.
I introduce one of them.
It is the phrase that say the feature of Shizuoka prefecture.
Shizuoka is located in the west of Tokyo. You can see Mt. Fuji there.
 Do you have this kind of tradition in your culture?